Bells rang out for Christmas day
by Marshmallows rock
Summary: The Doctor, Sarah and Harry end up in NYC, Christmas Eve 1984. Unfortunately, so does the Master. they now have 24 hours to save the city, the world, and themselves.
1. NYC, that's the city for me

Please don't ask why I'm writing a Christmas fic in the middle of August. If I wait till December, I'll forget.

They are not mine. My classic series DVD collection (comprising Robot, Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars and Hand of Fear) does belong to me.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

Sarah Jane was jumping about the TARDIS like an excited child. It was Christmas Eve and the Doctor was taking her and Harry home for Christmas. She and Harry had decorated the ship so that it looked very festive indeed, and as said medical officer entered the room just in time to see Sarah wobble unsteadily on a stepladder, only to find she was too small to get the tinsel as high as she liked it, he couldn't help smiling. Her enthusiasm was very infectious. The Doctor was off somewhere looking for something, leaving them to finish decorating.

"There. That'll have to do," Sarah conceded, climbing down the ladder. She had fixed some ribbon into her hair. "Looking forward to Christmas, Harry?" she grinned.

"Yes, quite a lot," he replied, as the TARDIS landed with a thud. Harry looked at the monitor screen and gulped.

"What's wrong?" Sarah said, padding over to the monitor. Then she saw what was on it.

"DOCTOR!!!!!!" Her yell echoed through the corridors loud enough to let the Doctor know he was in serious trouble. He decided to get the worst over with quickly and gulped before entering the console room. Sarah and Harry were standing by the console. Harry looked exasperated, and Sarah furious.

"UNIT HQ, you said. Does that look like UNIT HQ to you?" Sarah began. "And no, it's not Harry's fault," she added, sensing (correctly) what the Doctor was going to say next.

"We're not even in the right year," Harry chipped in, adding further insult to injury.

"What makes you say that?"  
Sarah pointed to a sign that said "HAPPY CHRISTMAS NYC 1984!"

The Doctor tried vainly to find a silver lining. "Well, at least, we're on earth. We might have ended up on Mars for some reason." He offered, not seeming the least bit perturbed by the botched landing.

Sarah groaned, and started off for her jacket, followed by Harry. The Doctor waited for them, and when hey were all jacketed up to facet the extreme temperatures, they stepped out into the busy street.

"Oh, it's freezing!" Sarah cried, jamming her hands into her pocket, her gloves doing nothing to keep out the cold.

"It'll make England seem roasting now," Harry agreed, turning around to keep out of the face of the biting winter wind.

"Well, it's not so bad. I've been to much colder places," the Doctor said, quite glad of his scarf.

"Big deal. For give me for pointing out the obvious, Doctor, but most people haven't got access to a TARDIS." Sarah was still a bit annoyed. He had 365 days in a year to mess it up and he chose this one!

"Well, there's no use standing about. We may as well go for a look around," The Doctor said.

"Come on, old thing," Harry said, but Sarah's attention had been caught by something across the street. The very sight of it seemed to put her in shock.

Materialising, on the street corner, was another TARDIS.

"Doctor!" He turned round at Sarah's shout, and came back.

"What the matter, Sarah Jane?" he said, startled by her panic.

"Another TARDIS just appeared, over there," Harry said, realising this was not good.

"Doctor? Doctor, are you alright?" Sarah shook his arm.

" Oh dear. This is bad. This is not good at all. This will take some investigating."  
_On Christmas Eve too!_ Thought Sarah.


	2. Seasonal stresses

Thank you very much Prydonian Girl and Laby Anne Boelyn for reviewing.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

The Doctor suddenly came to his senses and realised, he and his companions had to get out of sight. He pushed Harry forward and grabbed Sarah's arm, ignoring their yells of protest.

"Hey Doctor, what on earth do you think you're doing," Harry exclaimed, regaining his balance.

"And let go of my arm! Doctor, what's going on," Sarah gasped, as they arrived at the TARDIS after first making sure the other occupant was safely out of sight. The Doctor unlocked it and burst inside, fiddling with controls. They half expected it to dematerialise, but instead, nothing happened.

"Phew, we're safe now," the Doctor said, collapsing onto a chair.

"Right," said Sarah. "There's a question I can ask you now. What on earth are you doing? We get physically manhandled (she indicated a large bruise on Harry's arm that hadn't been there five minutes ago) back here and you haven't even old us what the hell is going on!" Her frustration was conveyed in her language.

The Doctor looked so grave, Sarah wished she hadn't shouted, but she had let her temper run away with her again.

"The owner of that TARDIS," he said, wondering where to begin, "The owner of that TARDIS, was at the Academy in Gallifrey with me."  
"Another Time Lord?" said Harry, realising that this was not good.

"Yes, Harry. Another Time Lord. And that Time Lord is called the Master. Nobody knows his real name."  
"You told me about him." Sarah remembered a past conversation.

"I did. But I didn't tell you how utterly powerful he is. I've defeated him before, but only just. And he's very hard to kill. He can regenerate too."  
The Doctor stood up. "And now we are going to have to take care of this too."  
He marched from the room, leaving a stunned Harry and bewildered Sarah in his wake.

"Oh!" Sarah wailed, burying her head in her hands. "So much for Christmas!"  
"Er, I say, Sarah, I think we'd better go and see what the Doctor is up to."  
She jumped up and they followed the Doctor off.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

The Doctor had vanished down into the depth of the TARDIS, down to the computer room, where he only went if there was an emergency. He seemed grey and worn out. Guessing correctly where the Time Lord had gone to, his companions went down there after him, helped a bit by the TARDIS.

"Hey Doctor," Sarah called softly, and creeping over to him. She laid a tentative hand on his arm. "Are you all right?"  
The warm glow that always flared inside the Doctor at the sight of Sarah Jane Smith lit up. He looked straight into her compassionate brown eyes, and decided the only thing he could do was tell her and Harry the absolute truth.

"The Master is powerful. Very powerful. He can remake history if he so chooses. And I think that is his intention. He could erase all sign that we ever existed."  
Harry only just realised he was holding his breath. He didn't trust himself too speak.

Sarah was a little braver. "Why would he want to do that?"  
That was the wrong thing to say. The Doctor lost his temper completely, and it was a while before he realised that he was shouting his head off at Sarah.

"I don't know Sarah Jane! Why would I know? Am I so powerful that I can see into other people's heads? The bottom line is that the Master is a Time Lord's answer to the devil and there is absolutely no way we can leave without wrecking history! Don't be so stupid!!"

Sarah found she was holding back tears, and Harry squeezed her hand in a vain bid to comfort her. The Doctor looked at her but instead of being compassionate now, her eyes were now surprisingly liquid. She turned away, and blinked a couple of times, and a few ears ran down her cheeks.

Harry tried to break the silence.

"So, when are we going to be able to have a shot at him?"  
In spite of himself the Doctor grinned. "Now. Come on!" He stood up, and turned to look at Sarah, who was still taking more interest in the wall than was necessary.

"I didn't mean to shout at you Sarah. I certainly didn't mean to call you stupid."  
"I know you didn't. I'm not a china teapot."  
He sighed and left the room. Harry waited till he had gone and then walked over to Sarah and gave her a hug. She collapsed against him, and he was sure he heard her sob once or twice.

When Sarah felt better, they ran up to join the Doctor in the console room, pulled on their coats and stepped out into the biting New York wind.


	3. Hehhehheh

Eep. Sorry, very sorry for delay. But I've been getting mixed up in homework, studying and my birthday (the 23rd September, four days away, wahey!)

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

Harry shut his eyes as they came out into the crowded street, the wind stung so much.

"If you're going to walk about like that we won't get anything done," he heard the Doctor say.

With a sigh, Harry opened his eyes again. If the people of New York found it strange that two TARDIS machines were appearing, they were certainly not showing it.

"What's next?" said Sarah, who had to keep pulling her hair out of her eyes.

"We go and have a look around," the Doctor said, locking the TARDIS., and doing a quick check of the area to see where the Mater was. Nowhere in sight

They crossed the street and went over to the Master's TARDIS, unaware they were being watched.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

From his post at the corner, the Master could see the Doctor and his two companions go to examine his TARDIS. The Doctor had regenerated since their last meeting, no longer looking like the Phantom of the Opera minus the mask, but a bit like an upside down floor mop. He certainly looked more eccentric.  
And he had some new companions too. What had happened to the ditzy blonde assistant, Jo Grant? There was the medical officer from UNIT, and a smallish, dark haired woman. He didn't have the faintest idea who they were, but from what he could see across the street, the girl was clearly the Doctor's blind spot...

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

"Does the law of breaking and entering count with a TARDIS?" Sarah whispered to Harry. He chuckled.  
That was what the Doctor was trying to do. However, his key unsurprisingly didn't work, and the sonic screwdriver was also to no avail. Harry watched Sarah rummage about in her pocket, pull out a packet of hairpins, rip it open, and hand one to the Doctor. She handed it to him, and the door unlocked with a satisfying click.

"Where did you learn that?" Harry asked her.

"Doing investigative journalism means you do need to be prepared," she replied.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

Across the street, the Master started to run towards the machine. How could they have got inside?  
Well they might have got in but they weren't getting out...


	4. Under interrogation

I forgot to say, it's Delgado's Master, so don't be fooled by the previous title.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

It was Harry who spotted the Master on the monitor screen first.

"Doctor, I hate to break it to you, but I think we need to find a place to hide," he said, but the Doctor was already grabbing Sarah by the shoulders and shoving her under the grille of the console room. He and Harry followed her down.

The Master swung the door open, and Sarah went rigid with terror. The Doctor looked up at his old enemy, now pacing around the room. Every time he came near their spot, they didn't dare to breathe.

He was muttering to himself, in Gallifreyan, but judging by the look on the Doctor's face, it was nothing good. Then, struck by an inspiration, he bent over, lifted the grille, and said, grinning inanely, "Boo."

"Blast," Sarah swore softly.

The Master grinned. "Well, come on out, we can't lurk under the console all day!"  
The Doctor, Sarah and Harry trooped out. The two humans were starting to panic slightly, but the expression on the Doctor's face showed nothing but utter contempt.

"Are you intending to hold us here while you chunter to yourself, because if you are, we have much more pleasant things to do," he said, angrily.

The Master looked mildly surprised. 'There's really no need to be rude, Doctor," he said. "Or would you like me to use your full name?"  
"DON"T YOU DARE!" The Doctor shouted, making Sarah scream and Harry jump abut a foot in the air. It was then that the Master seemed to acknowledge that they were there. Or to be more accurate he noticed Sarah, and Harry was perfectly happy to not be mentioned, judging by the Doctor's reaction.

"So you're the new lady in his life," he said to Sarah. Her expression changed to on of fury, but she was blushing furiously.

"I'm his assistant, actually," she said, defiantly.

"What happened to the blonde woman?" he asked, turning to the Doctor.   
The Doctor's face surprisingly became one of sadness. "She left to get married."  
Harry was keeping an eye on Sarah, who was now looking from the Doctor to the Master, looking mildly incredulous.

"So she was special to you, was she?" It seemed, to Sarah, very unfortunate that the Master had picked up on this and he seemed to be having fun taunting her and the Doctor. "Funny, but I remember you saying she was your assistant too. Must've arrived when I launched the Autons and the daffodils on earth,"  
"Probably," the Doctor said, obviously fighting not to shout.

It was then that Harry noticed something. He was looking over to one of the boxes he had hidden behind and he noticed the label on it. He nudged Sarah, who looked at it, and went from being scarlet to having no colour in her face at all.

The label on the box read "UNIT files."  
There was a list of names down the side  
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart"

"Captain Michael Yates"  
"Sergeant John Benton"  
"Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan (medical officer)"  
And right down at the bottom, beside two scrawled out names:  
"Sarah Jane Smith (personal assistant to the special scientific advisor)"


End file.
